Join us on Sunday, October 13, 2022 at 2:00pm Central for a generative workshop with featured poet Ashia Ajani.
This workshop will use climate writing and art by members of the African Diaspora to inform young people’s own climate narratives. Climate change is one of the biggest sources of stress among young people; being able to write about our feelings and experiences with environmental harms allows for space to process these emotions and envision futures beyond harm. This workshop is designed for young writers who are interested in developing their use of imagery. This workshop will use African and Caribbean mythology to analyze how different diasporic people have interpreted natural disasters and climate impacts for millennia, and what we can learn from these myths. We will also look at the art of Eddy Kamaunga Illuga, whose imagery around colonization and the exploitation of African nations under capitalism and the climate crisis holds powerful insight for understanding how apocalyptic conditions have plagued the African diaspora in an anti-Black world. Students will leave the workshops with written drafts, ancestral knowledge and environmental futures.
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ACCESS NOTES: The workshop will take place virtually via Zoom with Zoom and Otter.ai auto captions. An ASL interpreter will be present. Access copies of poems will be made available via Google Docs. Our Access Statement will be read before we begin.
Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) service will be provided with advance request. To ensure that we have enough time to book and allow captioners to prepare, Please reach out to the Open Mouth team through Eventbrite or via email at [email protected].
Recommended for attendees 16 years and above.
FEATURED POET:
Ashia Ajani is an award winning Black storyteller soulchild of Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Ute, Arapahoe and Comanche peoples. They are an environmental educator with Mycelium Youth Network and co-poetry editor of The Hopper Literary Magazine. Ajani has received fellowships and support from Tin House, The Watering Hole and Just Buffalo Literary Center words have been featured in Atmos, Apogee Lit, Sierra Magazine, Hennepin Review and Michigan Quarterly Review, among others. Follow their journey at ashiaajani.com or on the socials @ashiainbloom.
EVENT HEADER IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
A photo of the featured poet is outlined with a black line and displayed over a light blue background. Beneath the photo are the words “Open Mouth Presents: A Workshop with Ashia Ajani.” Availability of sign language interpretation is indicated by the presence of an icon showing two hands signing in the bottom left corner.
Photo Description: The poet is visible from the mid-chest up. They are looking up while standing in front of a microphone stand; they are wearing a red and orange sparkly shirt and long lavender and orange eye shaped earrings. Photo by Destiny Brock.
SPONSORS: Support for Open Mouth Literary Center is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from our supporters on Patreon.